Bernhard Fries Lot n° 55

Bernhard Fries, High mountain landscape near Civitella. Oil on canvas. (1860s). 97.9 x 130.7 cm. Verso on stretcher locally inscribed "Civitella", on the reverse also a collection inscription (?), no. "G1737". Signed lower left. Framed. Like his older brother Ernst (1801-1833), Bernhard Fries repeatedly traveled to Italy. He came into contact with the art of Carl Rottmann in his early youth. In 1860, after the bankruptcy of his father's bank, Fries settled in Munich to support his family with the proceeds of his paintings. There, in the following years until 1866, he produced his main work as a painter: a cycle of forty Italian landscapes, which Fries created in the style of Rottmann's Italy pictures in the Hofgarten arcades for a pavilion according to the plans of his friend Gottfried Neureuther. The building never materialized, but the paintings were to be placed in two rows, one above the other, in a hall lit by an opening in the ceiling. Fries then intended to sell the cycle as a whole to King Ludwig II, but this plan also failed, so Fries was forced by his plight to sell the paintings individually, as a result of which they are now scattered to the four winds and some are no longer traceable. Also this view of the mountainous surroundings near Civitella seems to have been a part of said cycle. Provenance: Private property, Southern Germany. Taxation: differential taxed (VAT: Margin Scheme)